Playing goaltender and wearing number 41, Craig Anderson played for the Ottawa Senators during the 2010/2011 NHL season. His salary for the season was reportedly $2,125,000. The total team salary for the Ottawa Senators was reportedly $50,083,333, so his salary represented 4.2% of that total team payroll. That season, the average salary for a player on the Ottawa Senators was $2,384,920, while the median salary was $900,000. He played a total of 51 games that season, with 0 goals and 1 assist - a total of 1 point. To find out how much he earned per game played, we can divide his reported salary by the number of games played. He earned $41,666.67 per game. Craig Anderson had a plus/minus of 0, 4 PIM (penalties in minutes), 0 PP (power play goals), 0 SH (short-handed goals), 0 GWG (game winning goals), and took 0 shots. He had a shooting percentage in the 2010/2011 season of 0.00%. His goaltending statistics include 2865 min, 1546 SA (shots against), 135 GA (goals against), 2.83 GAA (goals against average), 91.30% save percent, and a record of 24-20-4, including 2 shutouts. We can divide his salary by the number of shots against, if we want to try to evaluate his performance strictly as a goaltender. His salary per shot against was $1,375.

Don't forget about taxes. Although each NHL season is composed of months two separate calendar years, having a salary in the United States of $2,125,000 we can estimate that he would have to hand over $719,034 in federal income taxes. For comparison, that is about the same amount of tax as the tax paid by 88 median high school teachers, 100 median police officers, or 143 median fire fighters. After paying the federal government, he would have $1,405,966 left over. However, he may still need to use some of that money to pay state or city taxes as well.

About the author

Author: Mark McCracken is a corporate trainer and author living in Higashi Osaka, Japan. He is the author of thousands of online articles as well as the Business English textbook, "25 Business Skills in English".